HISTORY

While the job of a mail carrier might be largely the same as it was 100 years ago, the postal system itself has drastically changed over the past century. Here are some vintage photos, courtesy of The Library of Congress, that show how your mail used to t

Thanks to a post-war BBC policy known as the “toddlers' truce,” stations would not broadcast between 6:00 and 7:00 in the evening to give parents a chance to put their children to sleep before the evening programming.

We barely scratched the surface of historical Doctor Who in our previous post. Today, we'll look at a few of the historical adventures transmitted in the 1960s. 1. The Aztec Empire In History: The Aztecs were a group of Mesoamericans who dominated much o

Forget Ginger Rogers and Joan Crawford. The most sought-after celebrity of the late-1930s was a mono-named socialite called Cynthia. She was invited to the most elite parties, including the posh wedding of Wallis Simpson and Edward VIII of England. She re

Burmese Python image via Shutterstock Earlier this week a team of scientists from several universities and the US Geological Survey released a study documenting the dramatically declining numbers of small and medium-size mammals in Florida - including ra

© John A. Angelillo/CorbisAdmittedly, I haven't paid as much attention to this year's Super Bowl as to previous NFL championships. (Having the new issue of mental_floss on deadline has plenty to do with that.) Still, I love delving into the numbers, so th

Earlier this week, we looked at Doctor Who stories inspired by the headlines. But far more stories were ripped from the history books. In fact, the original series concept back in 1963 was to alternate science fiction stories (which could be used to intr

Image courtesy of shibainu's Flickr stream The kazoo is an under-appreciated instrument. To remedy that fact, fans from across America have united to celebrate National Kazoo Day (today!), a day when the lowly humming instrument can finally receive the c

Walter Gregg and his young son were working on a project in their garden shed in Mars Bluff, South Carolina, when the backyard was hit with a nuclear bomb. What? You don’t recall the time a nuke almost took out the South? It happened on March 11, 1958,

The answer, oddly enough, lies with Mormon Crickets. The so-called "Miracle of the Gulls" became a legend in Salt Lake City, with the California Gull being named the Utah state bird and a monument to the birds being built outside of Salt Lake Assembly Hal

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a man they called the King of Dudes. Not “dude” in the sense that we use the word today - the King would certainly have been appalled by Bill S. Preston, Esq., and "Ted" Theodore Logan. Back in the 1800s, “dud

From the Yes, This Really Happens Department, I bring you the terrifying sport-slash-torture-ritual of Ferret Legging, also known as "put 'em down" and the much more descriptive "ferret-down-trousers." Yes, folks, here's how it works: you get yourself s